Abstract

The material theory of induction requires that good inductive inferences must be warranted by facts within their domain of application. In earlier chapters, we have seen many examples of individual inductive inferences warranted by specific facts. Marie Curie, for example, inferred the crystallographic system of all crystals of radium chloride from inspection of just a few specks of the substance. The inference was warranted by facts contained in crystallographic principles from the preceding century, not by some universal inductive inference schema